Food is one of the things that we spend a lot of our pay packets on each month.
We all moan about the amount we spend in the supermarket and this is mainly due to those small visits. You head to the local supermarket with the intention of just picking up a pint of milk and loaf of bread but for almost all of us this never happens, £30 and a boot load of shopping later we are heading home thinking why did I buy all that?
But just how much money could you be saving on your trips to the supermarket?
The below goes through some potential savings you could make but why not add any ideas as a comment?
Frozen versus fresh
Researchers at the Centre for Food Innovation at Sheffield Hallam University looked at the cost of frozen and fresh versions of the following foods: pizza, broccoli, carrots, garlic bread, chicken, prawns, salmon, sausages, spinach and parsnips.
They found that, by switching from fresh to frozen when purchasing all these items, people could make savings of up to 63p per 100g.
An average weekly shop for these items would be around £8 cheaper, which could equate to a saving of around £400 over the course of a year.
Use vouchers and coupons
Voucher code websites are ever increasing in popularity. They offer discounts off anything from theatre tickets to theme parks and restaurants to holidays.
However, they also often feature money-off vouchers for supermarkets, such as £10 off first orders when you spend over £50 at Tesco.
If you can get your hands on a similar deal for Asda, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and Ocado, you could save £50.
If you get into the habit of cutting coupons out of newspapers and magazines, you could find that you pick up some great bargains on your next trip to the supermarket.
Even if you just get one £3 item at half price each week, this will add up to a saving of £78 over the year.
Consider a rewards card
It’s possible to earn rewards just by doing your weekly shopping, depending on which credit card you have.
If you spend £100 per week at a Tesco store with the Tesco Clubcard Credit Card, you’ll earn over 125 points, which will add up to more than 1,500 points over the year.
Choose to spend these points in store and you’ll save £15 off your shopping.
If you opt for Sainsbury’s Nectar Credit Card, you could earn up to four Nectar points for every £1 you spend at Sainsbury's for the first two years.
You’ll also earn one Nectar point for every £5 spent on your card elsewhere.
If you spend £100 per week in Sainsbury’s with this card, you’ll earn 20,800 points, which equates to £102.50.
Here’s a quick look at the savings you could make this year:
|
Frozen produce |
£400 |
|
Online vouchers |
£50 |
|
Coupons |
£78 |
|
Sainsbury's card |
£102.50 |
|
TOTAL: |
£630.50 |